BOOM!!

Today, at some point in the evening, I will take pictures of exploding sky-illuminating pyrotechnics. Most likely I’ll be at the Empire State Plaza, enjoying all the fireworks and explosions and cheers and excitement.

Every year, I look for the best place, the best vantage point, to photograph the fireworks. Along a ledge. Against a barrier. From the rooftop of an adjoining building. Along the water’s reflections.

Every year, I race home to see how well the pictures turned out. And by “race home,” I travel along what becomes the I-787 parking lot, as thousands of other people try to “race home” as well.

It’s interesting… as a kid, I was afraid of fireworks shows. My parents took me to a fireworks show at the Altamont Fair, and the shells were so close and the fireworks were so loud, I cried and begged to go home. My stepfather – obviously angry about having to travel all the way to Altamont and seeing his stepson acting like a fraidy-cat (and him making sure he let me know how disappointed he was in me), dragged me back to the car, put me in the front seat, and told me to watch the fireworks from there. Which I did.

Over the years, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for the fireworks shows of the Capital District. I used the 2009 fireworks show to test out my new-at-the-time Nikon D700 camera, which I had just acquired days earlier at B&H Photo. I set up at the parking structure across from the Empire State Plaza, and used my Kiev Mir-24H fisheye lens to capture the show.

Man, I feel old. These pictures were actually taken two months before I ever started blogging for the Times Union.

I returned to that shooting location in 2010, and took some more pictures of the Independence Day celebration.

And these were taken last year. I positioned my camera right behind a stone pillar, so as to get as close to the fireworks as possible without having anybody in front of me to ruin the shot.

Where am I going to set up this year? I’ve scouted a few locations, and I think I might actually have a possible “solid” location. I just don’t know, depending on traffic, weather, crowds, heat, ten other unknown factors, if the place I’m thinking of right now will be the same place where the photos will originate.

What gear will I use? Well, the Nikon Df is a certainty. But I’m also thinking about using some of my other film cameras. I did that in 2010 with my Kodachrome film; I did it in 2011 with the Rolleiflex. Maybe some of my other offbeat film cameras will get a chance to play tonight. We shall see.

All i know is that the fireworks show at the Empire State Plaza is more than just a big booming pyrotechnics show. It’s more than just a rat-a-tat-tat, Happy Birthday America show.

It’s a chance to capture the beauty and power as the skies are painted with light and controlled fire.

And that’s fun.

Don’t you think so?

I do.

And I’m not going to hide in the car like that fraidy-cat child from years ago.

Not me.

Not this time.

Chuck Miller

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Chuck Miller: Writer, Photographer, and the life lessons I learned from Street Academy